Time Management

Pastel painting - "With Maureen" Plein Air - Savannah 2005

I am so thankful for my mornings. When many are rushing to work I’m drinking my coffee and planning my day doing what I want to do. Retirement has been touted as a wonderful carefree time but I’m slowly learning that it’s also a time when you have so many new choices and demands on your time you have to relearn time management and put your own spin on it.

What I mean is it’s easy to waste time or use your time unwisely when you are retired. It’s easy to get over booked and think you can do things when you are in control of your time schedule instead of having a boss or company set your schedule. I fully admit I haven’t been the best with managing my time. My days seem to take over themselves and I follow right along until the day ends. Then I find myself asking did I do anything at all of importance, what did I accomplish or did I waste the day?

I don’t think new years’ resolutions work just like diets don’t work. It’s the same thing! You pick a day and plan to change your life and then within three days you’re busted. My time management plans seem to all get busted too. However, there are a few management ideals that linger on and help me at least keep some of my life together.

Today is Monday, so that means its office day. Monday is the day that I take a look at all the things in the office basket and take care of it. I continue through the basket until it’s completely empty and then I can feel worry free that I haven’t missed paying a bill or responding to something that has a due date. When I miss my office day my entire week is thrown off balance. This was a life lesson passed on to me by one of the secretaries that worked at Thomaston Mills. She was secretary to George Hightower, Sr. and was greatly admired by all the secretaries in the pool. Her excellent secretarial and people skills didn’t go unnoticed by me working in the order department as a lowly account clerk either. When I asked her how she kept her basket so clean in such a busy office, she said as soon as something hit her desk she only handled it once either taking action or passing it on to the next person that need to take action. I know one of the mistakes I make is just shuffling paper from one basket to the next without taking action. I handle things too much, looking at them and then placing them back in the basket. I tend to let things stack up delaying until the last minute. That’s why I’m thankful for my Monday office days.

In my prayers today I’m praying that God will help me follow Paul’s advice in Ephesians 5 to be careful how I walk, not as unwise men but as wise…understanding what the will of the Lord is. To help me break it down further I’m going to ask Him to help me with my time management today, using it wisely and to His ultimate service correcting my steps when I fail. After all, listening to God IS part of my new years' resolution, right? Now on to office Monday.